In several industries, including the nuclear power industry, waste products are generated by normal operations of such facilities. For example, nuclear power plants and hospitals produce waste materials that are bio-hazardous such as wastes that are radioactive. These wastes can include low level radioactive materials that need to be placed in secure containers for disposal. Prior to its disposal, the bio-hazardous materials need to be properly stored in a proper container that can protect individuals from the harmful effects of hazards such as radiation.
One method of storing these waste products is to encapsulate the radioactive waste within a solid matrix in a secure container. This encapsulation process involves in-container mixing of wastes with a wet or dry cement type mixture to form a solid monolith that is stable for long term storage and disposal of the hazardous materials.
Since exposure to these waste materials is harmful to individuals, a shielded automated system is used to fill storage containers and to have the solid monolith formed in the container without direct personal contact. During the process, an automatic engagement solidification fill head is used to assist in performing the following steps: introducing waste into the container; dewatering the waste if necessary; providing pre-conditioning chemicals if needed; adding binders such as dry cement, wet grout, or others and mixing the entire contents in the container. The contents then cure into a solid monolith thereby trapping the waste materials in a stable matrix for transport and storage.
The process of introducing the waste and binders to the container can be accomplished through what is referred to as a “fill head” that has nozzles for transmitting waste, binders and other materials into the container. Operation of the fill head requires seating the fill head on the container so that waste does not splash out of the container, connecting hoses to the fill head and securing the agitator drive coupling to the fill head. These steps are reversed to remove the fill head once the encapsulation process is completed.
Some wastes, particularly radioactive wastes, are too hazardous for humans to have direct exposure to hands-on operation of a fill head for performing the steps described above. The high level waste simply creates too great a risk for individuals to be operating the equipment by hand. This is particularly true since fill heads drip waste once it is removed from the container. These drippings can result in a buildup of hazardous material in the container filling area that can result in harmful radiation exposure to individuals operating the fill head.
Thus, there is a need in the waste containment industry for an automatic solidification fill head that allows for the encapsulation of harmful wastes without direct human hands-on operation that reduces the dangerous buildup of hazardous materials that may drip from the fill head between filling storage containers.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an automated fill head assembly for loading hazardous waste into containers that includes a drip control unit to retain drippings from the fill head.